A few weeks ago (and a few posts ago!) I bought an Alesis ControlPad. For the price, this is a great little device, and works really well – WHEN IT WORKS!
The first one I had had an issue with one of the pads, in that it was sending out random rubbish when I hit it, so was triggering all sorts of things. I swapped it out today for another one, and when I got it home, I plugged it in and tried each pad individually. All worked fine – with no issues! Hurrah! Good yes?
No!
When I started actually playing something with both sticks, I found this one had a different problem…! When more than one pad was triggered at one time, they would invariably not both fire. Only the one was ending up being input. I checked this by recording me simultaneously hitting the hi-hat and snare over and over. This showed up that about one in five times, the snare wouldn’t fire. This would happen no matter what I played together – one of the pads wouldn’t fire intermittently. This was incredibly frustrating, and after a 70 mile round-trip to get the replacement, I’ve had enough. This wasn’t happening even this morning with the last unit I had, even though one of the pads was knackered.
Unfortunately, its reduced this great device to being totally useless, and I’m not prepared to go through the rigmarole of chancing another unit. Alesis have got to get their quality control sorted This has left me extremely disappointed, and unlikely to chance one of their controllers again.
In short – My experience hasn’t been favourable. You may get a good one, but I’m afraid that after two dodgy units, I’m going to be waiting for Alesis to sort out the QC issues before diving in again. Its a shame, because I really like this unit.
First off, cool site. I stumbled across it on a google search for the ControlPad and Logic. Did you end up returning the 2nd unit for a refund? I am curious how this all turned out.
Off to read more of your posts and listen to your tunes!
Cheers,
Dave
Cheers for the feedback Dave, it’s well appreciated
As for the ControlPad – I’m just composing my next post, which should explain all…
Hi Music Lovers; I also bought one of these Alesis ControlPads and found that if necessary you can adjust the “Sensitivity” and the “Velocity” on the pads. Might help… I think that it’s pretty good & agree that it’s great value for the $$$. Beats drumming with a keyboard all the time anyway…
Hope this helps, thanks & take care out there
Hi everyone,
Same problem here. I got a Roland V-Drums KD-85 kick connected to the trigger input of the Alesis ControlPad and when I hit the kick and one pad at the same time, usually one of the two notes are missed. It’s completely annoying. I sent this comment by email to the Alesis support center but I did not get any answer yet.
I got a dilemma. To purchase a Roland SPD-20 around $550 or get another Alesis and never play two pads together on the same device.
Best wishes from Spain.
I didn’t have this particular problem on my first Controlpad, so it isn’t a universal thing. Basically is IS a fault, not just a quirk of the hardware.
If you can, take it back for a refund and get a low-end v-drum kit like you were talking about. I couldn’t face the prospect of a third faulty Controlpad, so i went for these :-
http://www.axemansplace.co.uk/index.php?s=legacy+dd502
Much better, and in my case (take a look at the article though!) not much more expensive. If you can afford a Roland set, go for it.
Hi,
I have the same situation.
Me and my brother bought it a week ago, and had the same situation, and of course, returned it and changed for another unit, and yesterday this one started to get the same simptoms. This is strange that only the third pad in the second order is in fact acting the way it playes more things at the same time. In fact it playes the same thing as the pad from it’s left side, but only on it’s right part of that pad. This is really strange… We also do not know what to do?
Sounds almost identical to the problem I had on the first unit, except for mine, it was the third pad from the left on the top row.
I’d take it back and get a refund if you can, as I don’t think Alesis have got this one right at the moment. Once they sort out their quality control, then maybe things will improve…
I didn’t notice that problem, but I experienced something similar. When a kick drum trigger is connected to the unit, it drops notes from the external triggers when notes are played on the units pads.
I confirmed this with other users and am fed up. This is the last piece of shit…I mean Alesis gear I will buy. I have purchased three other products of there’s because of the price only to find out that it doesn’t do what it says on the box.
Hello, thanks for that info, i was questioning my self as my pads drop a sound when 2 are triggered, i thought it was my doing. This is sad as i really like the pads but if it keeps dropping midi notes its worthless as you said.
Thanks. Tony.
I recently bought one of these and while waiting for it to arrive I read all the problem people have been experiencing. It seems to me that if two pads are hit at exactly the same time the lower midi note just goes missing, rendering it useless for trying to actually drum on. I tried it on USB and through the midi port, and tried 2 pads on 2 different channels but with no change.
How can such a fundamental problem not have been spotted before releasing it to the public?!
Hi guys
I have the Control Pad about three days now, and using it with Ableton Live, I also experienced the fact that drumming on two pads at the same time will give you a dropout. So no funky drumming with a snare and hihat together.
Is this normal? Is it due to the hardware? If so, I’m really disappointed.
If anyone knows more, do email me.
Thanks
er, no email available… just post here
It seems crazy doesn’t it! From the number of posts from people that seem to have the same problem, it seems the rule rather than the exception.
Thing is, the first one I had didn’t seem to have the issue, but the one pad (the hi-hat one on most layouts) ended up triggering other sounds too!
I tried three altogether, and all had problems, two of which were the same as you are describing. I mean – who would release a drum controller on which you couldn’t hit more than one note at a time. Its like releasing a keyboard which only allows you to play one note at a time (and I know certain lead synths are like that – but they’re MEANT to be like that).
I’d love to know if anyone has actually managed to get any info about this from Alesis themselves. I haven’t had a controlpad for quite a while now, so have sort of left it behind – but others must be wanting to sort the issue…
Please let us all know on here if anybody’s had any joy!
Hello again! I decided to rip my pads the triggers out, wiring and boards. Nice and easy cos its usb powered. Im experimenting mounting them on all sorts of things for hand percussion. The reason i posted this is to say through experimenting there is a ‘band’ of velocities where alls well and i can trigger up to 10 sounds stray-out of that band however and the system just falls over!
Intersting. Let me know how it goes, and how yu finally mount them!
Cheers.
Same shit on my end. So Fucking ANNOYING!!!! I guess it’ll work if you’re not too great at drums and can’t hit two pads at the same time even if your life depended on it. I tried every way to connect it to my computer and always the same shit, one out of two notes would be dropped. I was really stoked cause I just made a kick drum pedal trigger out of an old car brake rotor and $4 worth of electronics from Radio Shack. I thought it was some way that I had the pad sensitivity and threshold set but I guess not. I think I’m most pissed about the time I spent trying to figure out why it was doing that. Off a cliff it goes!!!!!
Same here! Everything works great – one pad at a time. I’m changing mine. Thanks for letting me know they actually should work with two pads.
One thing, any tips on substituting the alesis sustain pedal for a hi-hat, and will a more real kick drum work, like those found on Milleniums e-drum kits?
//Joni
Ho ho! I’m such a n00b! I had all my drums pads set on midi channel one. You change it on the controller. Now it doesn’t cancel one pad when I hit two at the same time.
RTFM! People don’t say that enough anymore. Read Fhe F-ing Manual.
One strange thing that happens in Cubase 3 SX is that it won’t record it as it plays in the speakers. This must be a software issue though. Need I a word clock or adjust the latency somewhere?
Wow, these are great when everything is working!
Nice one! However… this shouldn’t be an issue. If it was, how would you play a keyboard on one MIDI channel and be able to press more than one key at the same time?
I had this problem whether or not I was using separate channels for each pad. Glad to hear it sorted your issue though. Anyone else had the same results??
I’ve got the same problem. When I hit the high hat and the snare at the same time, the snare craps out. It only seems to happen occasionally – once over the course of a four minute song, for example. But even that’s too much.
I’m debating whether or not to send it back in hopes of getting one that works correctly. I love this thing for the price. This note drop-out is my only gripe.
Hoping that changing the midi-channels as Joni suggested solves the problem.
Thanks Axeman for starting this thread. Glad to find some info on the topic.
No problem Ben – glad to be of use!
Its strange that this doesn’t seem to affect all units to the same degree. Like I said, the first one i had didn’t suffer from this – it just had a problem with one pad triggering several sounds. However, the second one did have the problem.
Let us know how it goes….!
I emailed Alesis this morning with a description of our common problem, and a link to this thread. I’ll let you know if they happen to get back to me. From what I’ve heard, Alesis customer support has much “room for improvement.” Here’s their chance!
It would be interesting to hear from Alesis about this. They’ve got a great device in the ControlPad, and if they can sort the issues, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
Would be interesting to hear if they have any sort of work-around, or if not, a scheme by which the units can be returned easily for repair/testing, at no cost to the purchaser.
Joni’s suggestion about changing the midi channel numbers actually seems to have worked for me.
I was getting dropouts when I played the snare and high hat together. I changed the snare (second pad from left on bottom row) to midi channel number two, and left all the rest on 1. I also adjusted the sensitivity of the snare pad and high hat pad (third on bottom row) from 10, up to 15.
I put this thing through a real workout last night. I’m pretty sure (fingers crossed) the Control Pad hasn’t dropped a note due to the “monophonic problem” (inability to sound two notes at once) since I made these adjustments.
Good luck everyone!
Still hoping to hear back from Alesis, nonetheless.
Great thread & site! I’m about to order one of these things for playing live through Ableton when I DJ out at clubs to add a percussive show to the whole thing… I’m pretty sure the roland SPDS is the only substitute, but I’ve messed around on one and it doesn’t seem great… And it doesn’t even work off USB.
Please keep this post updated! I’d love to know that this dual trigger problem can be fixed before I get one!
No, you were right. The midichannel shouldn’t be an issue. Although it seemed to work for a while. I returned them today and tested a newer one and it did not have that problem and felt much more sensitive. Guess they fixed whateever problem they had in quality control in the factory in China.
A real good site
you got here.
Hopefully alesis will take mine back. This is not normal and I should get a working one.
…Now off to something completely different.
HI-HAT – problems with the alesis control pad.
I use alesis own sustain-pedals as kick and hihat and the thing won’t understand how to act like a real hi-hat. It understands open hihat when pressing the pedal and closed when I hit the assigned closed hihat rubberpad – two separate areas to hit for the same hihat. I have heard solutions as progression pedals from Proel, which apparently were OK but activated more the further you pressed which was confusing) – and a really interesting alternative – making makros in cubase!. Problem is I do not know how to make maros in cubase.
Can anyone try making hihat-makros so the sustainpedal is closed when pressed down and open when not pressed – and then teach me? I use cubase 3SX but will buy Cubase 4 if it works with a hihat.
Alesis took my control pad for service because of the double trigger pad problem after a months use. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
I’ll keep you posted.
After a moth, It seems like I’m getting a new one. Yeahii… I don’t care anymore… =(
Hello!
.
My name’s Philip, I use the Alesis Control Pad (CP)in the studio with my group ‘EL’E'VEN (you’ll find us in a google search – top of the list)
Just been reading this thread – cool.
I have found two problems with my device:
1) I had a problem with bad/over triggering (as mentioned at the beginning of this thread) I was going to send the unit back, but in a fit of madness/frustration I decided to open up the unit and take a look inside. I discovered that one of the triggers had not been fixed to its relevant pad and was hanging against the body of the unit, and therefore being triggered by vibrations running through the unit. The triggers are simply glued to the bottom of the pads, and the glue had already been placed on the trigger and was still sticky (!), so all i had to do was firmly push the trigger into place – problem completely solved. Warning: you may void your guarantee if you open up your unit and leave visible signs of your handy work- I knew this, but did it anyway.
2) We use masses of different soft synths and drums. We’ve found that the CP works fine with some and not with others. The actual length of the midi notes that the CP sends out tends to be unstable and often so short that some devices receiving the notes do not recognize them. This for example happens when I use Hypersonic. On the other hand, I find that BFD (drums) has no problem. BFD CP works perfect! The solution to this is to use some type of midi note converter that sets all incoming midi note to output with a minimum length value (legato). We haven’t implemented this yet (lazy) but I personally know someone who solved the issue by doing this.
One more thing. The use of a pedal for open/closed hi-hat operation does work, but not as you may expect. In BFD, for example, you cannot use the standard hi-hat assigned to the F#,G#,A# notes. You must set up the pedal to trigger on a special hi-hat below the kick drum. I can’t give you the exact info here – cos I’m not in the studio at the moment – I guess there must be someone out there that can explain this a little better.
OK – good luck.
If you’re thinking about buying this, buy from a shop. Test it in the shop. Buy the one you tested
Thanks Philip!
Some really useful info there. I agree with the test-before-you-buy idea wholeheartedly.
I must admit, I never had any issues with it not triggering certain softsynths, but then i didn’t actually have it for that long in the end.
Cheers!
Fuck. Got my controller after a month at support. It’s the same. Alesis owe me some money. 400 dollars to be exact.
Unless Phillips advice works. But did he solve my problem or just some other issue caused by the poor chinese children who must be building these units?
I got it working a little better in Cubase 4 by choosing 15 ticks in legato overlap in file – preferences – MIDI – Editing-MIDI. And also checking on “Legato Mode selected only”. Now it only skips every ten double hits instead of every fifth.
Still haven’t found that midi note length converter Phillip was talking about.
This is the BS response I got from Alesis, who got back to me within about 8 hours:
Hello John,
Occasionally, when two pads are struck at the same time, one of the two
strikes may not trigger a note, or generate a MIDI note.
This is a neccessary consequence of crosstalk rejection. If one pad is
struck hard at the same time another pad is struck softly, the soft strike
will be rejected because it is indistinguishable from crosstalk. This
phenomenon is not unique to the Control Pad; it happens on any drum module
that uses piezo sensors. However, it is more noticeable on something shaped
roughly like a ControlPad, because the mechanical crosstalk is greater and
therefore the suppression is greater.
For the hi hat and kick jacks not working at all, I would suggest resetting
the Controlpad by powering up while holding down the Up/Down Cursor buttons.
Best Regards,
Justin Baro
Alesis Technical Support
200 Scenic View Drive
Ste.201
Cumberland, RI 02864
401-658-5760
The only thing about this response is that as we know, it isn’t an occasional thing. For me, it is as often as I am accurate. as long as I’m hitting the pad at the exact same time as the external kick trigger, it drops the kick. I’ve also tried changing the Midi channel on just the kick, but had no luck there.
This is very frustrating because I don’t have >$500 to spend on a similar product that actually works. this unit could be SO cool if it worked right.
I understand exactly where you’re coming from. This can’t be something that is expected at this kind of level. A drum pad you can’t reliably play more than one pad at a time on? I mean, come on!
I understand if you just lightly tap one of the pads whilst banging the other hard, it could then be misinterpreted as crosstalk. BUT, if both are being hit at a reasonable pace, the system should understand its a pair of separate strikes, and should treat it as such.
The whole thing is confounded by the fact that you aren’t even using two PADS at once, you’re getting the same issue if you use a pad and the external kick trigger. That blows the tech support’s theory out of the water.
I take it you’re going to reply? Would be interesting to see how this goes.
Cheers.
Axeman, I responded with the exact same thing, and his response is below. I think that sadly I’m going to have to return it. His second reply was horrible. This is just unacceptable for a big company like Alesis, they need to address this and fix it.
I replied with:
Thanks for the quick reply,
I don’t think crosstalk rejection is the issue though. I can hit any two of the pads at the same time, it’s only when I’m using an external trigger. when trying to hit let’s say, a hi-hat assigned to a pad, and the external trigger at EXACTLY the same time, it drops the external input 100% of the time. as long as I am accurate, so is the dropping of the external trigger. Again, I don’t have this problem when hitting two of the eight included pads. I know this is a common issue, I’ve seen a few discussion boards around the internet with people having this problem.
Some people have had luck changing the MIDI channel on the external input (which didn’t work for me), and some have gone into MIDI settings in Cubase 4 to change the incoming note length to a minimum of Legato, which has been said to work. I am using Pro Tools though and need to find this setting.
Can Alesis release a firmware update or a sysex update that can fix this? Having USB on the unit would be a nice benefit for a needed update.
and his response was:
Hi John,
Thanks for the clarification. I have heard of this symptom before too and it seems to always come down to the user simply being too good at drums!
In order to properly process incoming note-on messages without false-triggering other pads, a stiff rejection between simultaneous notes has to be engineered into the hardware code of the unit. This is just an intrinsic ‘limitation’ necessary to pad-array-based drum triggers.
Another possibility would be a software / computer issue if you have this in your setup that may even come down to buffers and audio debugging of that nature. Let me know if there seems to be something else going on with this setup.
Best Regards,
Justin Baro
Again this response crumbles in validity because There’s no way an EXTERNAL kick trigger could false trigger a pad on the unit. and yet again, two pads on the unit CAN be played in polyphony.
So….
This is a device which is designed to be used as a drum input device, which, in it’s nature, should be designed to take simultaneous input from several inputs at once to even be fit for purpose. Unfortunately, the excuse they presented seems like trying to squirm out of an issue that is obviously preventing proper use of their product as advertised.
Ah well – Take it back if it doesn’t suit your needs – in the end, it’s not doing what you paid the money for…
I think you haven’t talked to the right people. If you ask any support anything they will answer something because it is there job, even if they don’t know the answer.
I’m waiting patiently for Phillip to come back from tour, or whatever. He knew a guy who knew how to change the midi length note by using some mysterious midi converter, possibly a sysex editor.
Still I haven’t been able to figure out how to download my sysex file properly. Third party programs are usually really old and refers to obscure old keyboards as default. MIDI-OX and Cubase 4 / 3 SX I haven’t understood yet.
Can anyone try to get a SYSEX DUMP on the Alesis ControlPad to a SYSEX EDITOR? I believe the Tweak of the Midi note length lies in there.
//Joni
Anybody tried the new(er) PerformancePad? I, too, have a ControlPad that is useless because of the double-hit issue (well, let’s be fair… It’s only useless as a MIDI percussion pad controller). It would be interesting to know if:
(a) They still haven’t solved the issue, but are now marketing another product with the same defect.
or
(b) They’ve solved the issue in the newer model. In this case, they’ve recognized and fixed the problem, but are not owning up to ControlPad owners and providing a solution (ie. free trade-up to the PerformancePad).
Neither case looks very good for Alesis if they don’t step up and address the problem…
Hey…
Same deal here. Not even a week into owing this thing and it suddenly started sending out random B.S. on one of the pads and losing all the MIDI output settings for the KIT. What a pain in the A**.
Im gonna go swap it out, but im obviously worried that i’ll come home with another problem.
Shame is that there is no competition in this price range. Next step up is a couple hundred dollars more and has built in sounds… Which I wont use at all. Damn.
It was pretty darn good when it was working… Except for the fact that they forgot to make a provision for triggering OPEN / CLOSED hats sounds with the sustain pedal input on the unit… I had to beg someone on the Reaper forums to write me a special script to do it… How could they forget to add this feature?
Would that Script be something you could share with us here Jake?
I could post it on the front page, obviously with credit to whoever wrote it (and with their permission of course!).
Just wondering – could be useful to others…
I’ve been researching this product for a few weeks… reading and calling and reading and calling. I haven’t purchased yet, so take this with a grain of salt:
It sounds like the “stream of random sh*t” problem happens after a piezo comes loose – meaning poor construction.
And lost Midi messages sounds like tweaker fatigue – as in, getting it to work with your setup is too much effort.
As far as using the external triggers is concerned – are the externals mapped to a Midi channel/note that is also ‘live’ on the pad controller? Like – I have the kick on pad #6 and on the pedal… If that is the case then I can see why the unit would discard notes… it may not be clever enough to know which trigger generated it?
All speculation – I’m just hopping I can buy one without my wife noticing
Man,
This thread has made me sick to my stomach… I was so excited after waiting 2 months to get my Controlpad that I bought a roland kick trigger and hi-hat pedal, and al kinds of crap in anticipation of having some fun with this thing.
Sure enough it’s missing A LOT of kick hits and the occasional snare or hi-hat hits as well.
I was hoping maybe it was something I could program out, but shit…. reading this I know they simply produced a lemon…fuck.
It amazes me that a company as big/reputable as alesis is allowing this… even behringer shit does what it says it will. I couldn’t be more disappointed… Has anyone had any luck?
I am still to get mine to work with ableton.
I cannot get ableton live to register any input from the pad.
It works in FL studio, but I can’t really use that for live performance. The program that came with the pad works fine, but the sounds are awful…
Anyone got tips on how to get ableton live to work with this pad?
I have also bought this crap-drum-shit……got it last night and 5 minutes of testing i noticed that i couldnt trigger hihat and snare at the same time. I went nuts and starting to read on the net……..i ended up here and now i know im not the only one.
I will return this shitty controlpad. I also tryed different midichannels and all kind of settings on the controlpad, nothing will help. Ive tryed 3 different drumprograms, all is the same. Im som dissapointed i could trow it in the wall…………how the hell are they allowed to sell this if it doesnt work.
Hi folks,
I had the same problem problem (double hit)with my control pad . I fixed it by setting the midi channels seperatly for each pad and set the sensitivity on each pad to 20.
Seems to work fine now.
My ControlPad registers as Midi events in Ableton… And even on the impluse instrument you can see Midi velocity sensor going up and down with the pad is struck… But in my midi assignment mode it will not register to anything I try to assign it to. Fucking thing has just been sitting at my house collecting dust.
How exactly would you edit midi channels in ableton?
Hey guys,
I was just about to buy one of these, and decided to do a quick bit of research before I purchased. I am certainly glad I did. Alesis’s comments were disappointing, and it’s obvious by reading the comments here that their product is just as lame. I’ve emailed my thoughts on the matter to them already; I feel it’s important that they know they are losing potential customers due to these issues.
I am still looking around for an alternative. Any thoughts on a Roland SPD-20 http://www.roland.com/products/en/SPD-20/index.html
?
Hi,
I’ve got another question: i’m sure you guys can help me out if i read all these replies.
After installing my computer on another place since i’ve moved, my hihat foottriggers suddenly doesn’t work good anymore. It triggers a closed hihat when stepping on it (which is good offcourse), but when i hit the hihat pad the hihat foottrigger hasn’t have any influence, so i hear a open hihat again. In other words: my hihat footpedal is worthless now
I tried to reset the controlpad, but without any succes. Please help me out. Thanks!
Wow!! I have been blaming Ableton for Alesis’s problem. I guess its my problem now because I bought it. Basically this thing works with the kick trigger as long as you don’t use the kick trigger. I tried moving every pad to a different midi channel and changing all the velocity curves and still there is no change. From what I have learned in the last 24 hrs is there is two ways of resolving this issue.
1. Return this piece of crap.
2. Give Alesis another $150 for the Alesis Trigger I/O and put the external kick that and have both running into the computer. Eh-Ehm.
I think Alesis should give these things out to all the buyers of the control pad that cannot use it.
I had Alesis tech support on the line 2 days in a row, trying to get my control pad to stop missing externally triggered notes when I play the pads, and basically they said there is nothing I can do about it, if changing the threshold and sensitivity settings don’t work. I did everything the tech support guy said, then recorded myself doing a double bass drum run with snare and hats on the control pad and it was ridiculous!! In 4 measures, this thing skipped 13 notes I gave it. Alesis says that is the drawback of “this type of pad”. My old Roland spd-20 never did this before. They should take this thing off the shelves at guitar center and put it up at KB Toys. I’m getting my money back.